HILO, Hawai‘i — Hawai‘i Community College is celebrating a successful first year of its Marine Option Program (MOP), where students gained extraordinary hands-on experience through real-world research, primarily with endangered sea turtle health and population studies on Hawai‘i Island’s shores.
“So far in our first year, we have helped to count 80 green sea turtles on the East Side of Hawai‘i and we have perpetuated the 40-year data set at Punalu‘u Black Sand Beach,” explained MOP program coordinator Jen Sims.